The ReWork with Allison Tyler Jones

In the second episode in our Sale Sabotage Series we are going to talk about predicting what your clients will do or say BEFORE they do it.   Rather than coming from a place of fear and worry about what clients will or won’t do (you know the drill): “What if they don’t buy anything?”  “What if they freak out over my prices?” Instead, imagine every scary question or possible sales scenario and then...

Do you ever feel like you could just work 24/7 and still not get everything done? If so, this episode is for you! When you spend your time doing things you feel like you SHOULD do, and saying yes when you should be saying no, you end up not having time for the things you WANT to do, or for the things that are most important. So today Jessica and I are going to be talking about how to create SPACE...

If you have been in business long, you might know EXACTLY what it feels like to become a Darling Doormat or a Disagreeable Dictator when it comes to your client interactions. Although you never started out intending to be either of those things, in an effort to “be nice” or get referrals, you’ve allowed clients to walk all over you and completely disregard your business rules (because you didn’t e...

If there is one thing all humans seek to avoid, it is pain. And yet, as business owners, we often face painful moments with clients. Moments that make us question ourselves, and our talent, and our ability to build a sustainable business. Too often, in these painful moments, we find ourselves responding from a place of fear. In order to save the sale and keep our clients happy, we roll over and gi...

Welcome to the first episode of The ReWork Book Club with my book bestie, Mary Fisk-Taylor. We both agree that much of the success we have achieved in our businesses can be attributed to the lessons we’ve learned from books. This book club series is all about distilling the key ideas from some of our favorite books to show you how they made a difference in our business, how we applied them, and ho...

Today’s guests are beacons of hope, light, encouragement and class in the photography industry. Lesa and Gregory Daniel, who own and operate Gregory Daniel Portraits, have been perfecting the art of marketing since long before the days of social media, and they know what it takes to build a successful brand for their luxury portrait studio.  The first step is deciding who you are. Gregory Daniel P...

A common misconception among photographers is that there’s no market for brick and mortar studios in today’s world of portrait photography. And yet Busath Photography, located in Salt Lake City, is going on 50 years and 3 generations in their bustling downtown studio.  Today’s guest, Drake Busath, has truly experienced the evolution of photography through the years and managed to stay relevant by...

Nobody can do what you do, in quite the way you do it. Take that in. Because it’s the truth.  If more portrait photographers could internalize this truth there would be less fear and less weird behavior when dealing with clients. Weird behavior like, shooting off a mile-long contract or multi-page price list to a client over email—with no context or perspective.  What you really need to do is simp...

This podcast is the final episode in a four part series featuring graduates of the ReWork’s Art of Selling Art business course. These students have spent the last six months ReWorking their businesses and applying the concepts they’ve learned in the course. As a part of each interview in the series, I ask each Art of Selling Art Graduate three questions:  1) How did principles in the Art of Sellin...

This podcast episode is the first in a four part series featuring graduates of the ReWork’s Art of Selling Art Business course. These students have spent the last six months ReWorking their businesses and applying the concepts they’ve learned in the course. As a part of each interview in the series, I ask each Art of Selling Art Graduate three questions:  1) How did principles in the Art of Sellin...

This podcast episode is the second in a four part series featuring graduates of the ReWork’s Art of Selling Art Business course. These students have spent the last six months ReWorking their businesses and applying the concepts they’ve learned in the course. As a part of each interview in the series, I ask each Art of Selling Art Graduate three questions: 1 ) How did principles in the Art of Selli...

This podcast episode is the first in a four part series featuring graduates of the ReWork’s Art of Selling Art Business course. These students have spent the last six months ReWorking their businesses and applying the concepts they’ve learned in the course. As a part of each interview in the series, I ask each Art of Selling Art Graduate three questions: 1) How did principes in the Art of Selling...

As artists, we are experts at composition and lighting. We plan and prepare for our shoots with precision and intention. We know what we are looking to accomplish and we use our vast technical knowledge to create something truly beautiful.  Windy skies? No problem. Crying toddler? We’ve got this.  A client complaint? Well…now we get uncomfortable. Part of owning and running our own business means...

Forward progress in business, as in life, often finds us standing at a crossroads or, scarier still, looking over a ledge into the unknown. What’s the next best step? Will the new session idea/marketing scheme/business process really work and what if it doesn’t? Today’s guest, Kimberly Wylie is no stranger to ledges. She’s thrown herself off a few in her time and joins me to talk about ledges, bus...

So many of us fall head over heels in love with the art of photography. We are motivated to develop our talents and, before we know it, our family and friends notice and ask us to create images for them. Fast forward a bit of time and, somehow, we find ourselves in the portrait business. Sound familiar?  Maybe you entered the portrait industry in a different way but I believe we all start out with...

If you feel like you have to be “busy” in order to be able to call yourself successful, you’re not alone. If you feel like you can’t delegate work to other people because you need to be the one doing everything……we’ve been there. If you feel like you’re not able to spend enough time with your family because you’ve overbooked yourself—yep, been there, done that. Today I’m joined by my friend and po...

Today’s guest is the powerfully resilient, flexible and confident Cynthia Moore, fellow portrait photographer who I have had the privilege of mentoring over the past few years. With the beginning of 2022 upon us (most likely after a crazy festive season for all the photographers out there listening!), now is the perfect time to do some reevaluations and reflections on 2021, and make some decisions...

As a portrait photographer, our heart sings at the thought of lighting and photographing and all the creative things that we would like to dream up for our clients, but have we considered that what our clients might REALLY want, what they might really NEED, is a Trusted Advisor to help them make sense of the portrait process and decide which images will look best in their homes?  Someone who’s opi...

Portrait photography is an art. The ability to capture something beautiful with your camera is truly something to be treasured and shared and enjoyed by others. However, for most of us, portrait photography is also a business. The way we put food on the table and support our families.  Blending photography and business can be its own kind of art. And being able to sell our art without turning into...

Pricing is one of those hot topics that makes most photographers squirm. For most photographers, you KNOW you aren’t charging enough, but you can’t quite wrap your brain around how to charge more. What if you lose all of your clients? What if other photographers think you’re crazy? What if…? There are a million fears swimming around in our minds when it comes to raising prices. I know. I have had...

To sell or not to sell? When it comes to developing a successful photography business, that is always the question. While industry experts have long since shown that there is more money in selling product, many photographers continue to prefer to shoot and burn. Why? Because making the transition to selling product feels beyond overwhelming.  But you don’t have to do it alone.  In this four part p...

Being a good photographer isn’t only determined by your lighting, or the composition of an image. In fact, the most overlooked ability of a photographer might be their ability to successfully direct a portrait session. There are as many different styles of directing as there are photographers. Some directing styles will lead to standard, boring photographs, and others will cause even the most disi...

Mistakes are inevitable. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in business or how meticulous you think you are, even the best of us are bound to say the wrong thing or order the wrong print or completely forget part of an order. And that’s okay. Because it’s how we deal with those mistakes that can transform them from our biggest regret into our greatest marketing tool.  In this episode we share...

If the idea of calling yourself a luxury photographer makes you recoil, you might be thinking about it in the wrong way. No matter your field of expertise or your preferred medium, if you are charging for your photographs, you’re in the luxury business!  Today I’m joined by the no-nonsense and hilarious Mary Fisk-Taylor PPA’s current president, and a photography studio owner who knows what it’s li...

The goal of any portrait photographer is to produce beautiful artwork for their clients. But what happens when that beautiful piece of art - that portrait that you retouched into the early hours of the morning - ends up in some cheap, tacky frame your client picked up for 50% off at their local craft store?  Running a full-service portrait studio means worrying about more than just the portraits w...